Sunday, December 20, 2020
A TRIBUTE TO MY DAD ALAN DELINE 10/08/1932 - 12/12/2020
Welcome and thank you for coming to celebrate my dad's life.
My dad was not only my dad but my hero and best friend. My dad was a very special man who I admired and looked up to. He was caring, sensitive, and had a heart of gold. If you had a problem he would listen and never judge. He never had a bad word to say about anyone. My dad believed that the most important things in life were family, education, continuing variety throughout your life and to accumulate as much knowledge as possible and pass it forward. His accomplishments in life show how much he truly believed in those things. He never let anything discourage him from achieving his goals. If things didn't go quite right the first time he would just try harder and kept trying until he succeeded. He used to tell me that you can't fail at something as long as you try your best. When my dad was a teenager he stuttered really bad. In order to overcome that he made appearances on his "uncle" Jim DeLine's radio show and eventually had his own radio show called Teen Time. His perseverance paid off and he overcame the stuttering. When I was in grade school my dad was an insurance adjuster who's territory was up north near the Odensburg area. He would pick me up early from school on Friday's and take me with him. There was a place that we stopped and I don't remember the name but they had an organist who played music while people ate. I always got to sit with the organist and my dad always had the person play Tiny bubbles by Don Ho for me and he would get me a Shirley temple to drink. The song side by side that you may have heard playing was our theme song. We sang it in the car everywhere we went. You see most of the time we didn't have a lot of money and I never knew it but to me the time my dad spent with me made me the richest person in the world. As long as we were together it made everything special. When my Nana died my dad turned his life upside down for me. He stopped being an insurance adjuster so he could spend more time with me. He took swimming lessons when I did and when I started competitive swimming he took courses to become an instructor, coach and eventually an Aquatic Director. When I was not attached to a swim team he rented out the Fulton YMCA early in the morning so I could practice for an upcoming swim meet. He became my coach and he was the toughest coach I ever had. He was hard on me because he knew I had the ability to be better. He told me that when you are born with a God given talent you don't waste it. You strive to be the best you can be. During that time there was one thing he tried that he never would again. He attempted to swim the butterfly in his 40's and ended up breaking 2 ribs. He laughed about it but he wanted to try something new and he did despite the outcome. My dad was always there for me and me for him. We laughed together, we cried, we tried new things and no matter what it was he made my life special. When I look back over the years some of my fondest moments are the traditions we had. Every Saturday night we would make a huge bowl of popcorn in one of those metal bowls that were orange back in the day and we would watch the famous Saturday night line up. Mary Tyler Moore Show, Bob Newhart show, Love boat and Carol Burnett. We always watched football on Sundays. We watched Michigan State and Syracuse Basketball. We even attended Magic Johnson's last game as a senior at Michigan State. He took me to New York City as my Christmas gift the year Magic Johnson played his first year with the Lakers to see the game. They were playing at Madison Square Garden. Every Christmas I would give my dad the Russell Stover's little chocolate santas that he loved along with chocolate licorice, oranges and flannel pajamas. The oranges were because that is one of the things Santa always put it my stocking. It became a tradition that he loved. My dad loved to live life to its' fullest . He loved to give back to his community by volunteering.He loved serving his country and so proud to be a Marine. He was proud of the 50 plus years in law enforcement. He loved to dance. He loved jazz. He loved chocolate ice cream and apple pie. He loved spending time with his family. My dad wore many hats over the years and received many awards and he was proud of his accomplishments. In one of my dad's many interviews for the paper he was asked what he thought his greatest accomplishment was he simply said that it was bringing me up on his own at a time when that was rare. I will miss my dad dearly but when you look back at his life , his accomplishments and all that he experienced what a wonderful life he had.
